TTR uses large, well equipped, marine
geoscience research ships to do both leading edge
research and provide training to young
geoscientists. Five out of ten cruises in
Mediterranean and Black Seas were carried out on
board RV Gelendzhik and more recent work in
the northeast Atlantic was carried out on board RV Professor
Logachev, both ships belonging to the Ministry
of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation.

The main TTR work area is the
deep-water part of continental margins. The suite
of onboard equipment normally includes:

GPS/DGPS navigation system. Thrusters, linked to the system, provide
highly accurate dynamic positioning of the ship. A
short base underwater navigation system is used
for accurate positioning of deep-towed instruments
and corers

High-resolution single-channel seismic
system

Hull-mounted 3.5-7 kHz profiler

10 kHz OKEAN long-range side-scan sonar.The system is used primarily
for regional scale accoustic seafloor mapping in
the depth range from 500 to 6000 m